fast paised

When their flight from San Francisco to Fiji is postponed a day, unmarried couple Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) are forced to visit each of their divorced parents to celebrate Christmas four times in one day. This results in plenty of uncomfortable, "Meet the Parents"-esque situations involving Brad's ultimate fighter brothers (Jon Favreau, Tim McGraw), hard-ass dad (Robert Duvall) and sexually frisky mom (Sissy Spacek), plus Kate's nosy sister (Kristin Chenoweth), newly religious mom (Mary Steenburgen) and supportive father (Jon Voight).

The verdict: "Four Christmases" needs approximately two Christmases to make you feel completely exhausted. Vaughn's motor-mouth routine lands a few winners, but the movie is all schtick all the time. So many holiday movies aim to show how grueling family celebrations can be, but that's no reason the movie themselves have to be such a chore.

Transporter 3

RATING: 2 1/2 EXCLAMATION POINTS

Back for another testosterone-fueled delivery, extraordinary driver Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is transporting a passenger: fiery redhead Valentina (Natalya Rudakova), who's been kidnapped to blackmail her father, the Ukraine's head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Worth noting: Frank's employers saddle him and Valentina with bracelets that will explode if they go more than 75 feet from their car.

The verdict: Landing somewhere between parts one and two in the mindless, innocent fun department, "Transporter 3" becomes something that's not serious but doesn't make a joke of itself either. Even though director Oliver Megaton gets too busy with MTV-style cutting and too cute when Frank and Valentina let work turn into play, some terrifically implausible stunts make it very easy to sit through this nonsense.

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What Matt says about ...

Australia PG-13

RATING: 2 EXCLAMATION POINTS

Call it a little show on a big stage, or tiny brushes on a huge canvas. But you also have to call it disappointing.

Twilight PG-13

RATING: 2 EXCLAMATION POINTS

The term "meh" was added to the dictionary [last] week, and just in time.